Susan Rice and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the two people most often mentioned for the position, are well-qualified. Were the president to choose either of them, the Senate should vote to confirm. But the idea that Rice should be disqualified because of statements she made on television in the days after the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, strikes me as unfair.

It seems pretty clear now that she based her statements on information the CIA provided at the time. That information proved erroneous, and why the CIA was giving faulty information to senior administration officials remains unclear. I haven’t seen persuasive evidence to support the theory thatRice’s statements were part of a cover up to hide a terrorist attack. The fact that Rice was working from information provided by the CIA would seem to undercut such a theory.

Obama and Candy Crowley say that Obama knew it was a terrorist attack on September 12. Then the White House tried to blame it on YouTube, apologized to the Islamic world for the video, and even jailed the person who made the video.

Susan Rice is a do-as-you’re-told hack, in the spirit of Chicago Way politics, that did what she was told. In Chicago you get ahead by doing what you’re told and not thinking. She would make an ideal addition to an administration of lazy underachievers who apparently don’t know the difference between terroists and protesters.